Praedicator

Verba

Saturday, April 18, 2009 - Saturday in the Octave of Easter

[Acts 4:13-21 and Mark 16:9-15]

"Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges. It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard" (Acts)
"But later, as the Eleven were at table, he [Jesus] appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised. He said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature." [Gospel of Mark]

Peter and John certainly got the message! When they were hauled before the Sanhedrin for healing the crippled man, they bluntly tell the Elders that they are not going to keep quiet about what they have seen and heard. Jesus' rebuke was probably still ringing in their ears. Unbelief and hardness of heart can mean that what is true may not get a hearing because it doesn't come the way we want it to, or because we are hardened by our "Enllightenment" heritage of individual, material/empirical and utilitarian ways of thinking!
The encouraging thing about it all is that even when we have shown hardness of heart and disbelief, Jesus is willing to just give us a scolding and tell us to get on with the job of proclaiming the Gospel "to every creature." If we've finally got the message, then we have to say the same things Peter and John have said and continue to say to us. "It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard." AMEN